Home of the Love Burger: Troy's Drive In in DeWitt.

There's nothing like a flame-broiled burger - and when the flames get this high, you know you're getting something special. Let's visit DeWitt's classic dairy bar.

A New Burger Dynasty - David's Burgers in Arkansas.

The Bubbus family has taken burgermaking back to basics and come up with a winning combination that's the new flavor of burgers in Arkansas. Let's check out David's Burgers.

Burger Lists: A Rant.

Arkansas burgers? I've had a few.

From time to time, you'll see me rant on here about the shoddy state of clickbait journalism. There are far too many websites out there just looking for someone to visit, and they use unscrupulous tactics to get you there.  In the past few years, that's included what my friend Michael calls "listicles," which are posts that enumerate points or items.  If you've seen the "Top 25 of This" or "10 Ways to That" sort of pieces out there, you know what I mean.

Sadly, we're seeing a lot of that with "experts" who are claiming the top restaurants for different types of things in Arkansas.  For instance,

One of these sites, OnlyInYourState.com, has come up with its supposed list of the 25 best burgers to be had in the state of Arkansas.  For your benefit and so you don't have to click through, the list goes:
25.  Root Cafe, Little Rock
24.  Salem Dairy Bar, Salem (Benton)
23.  Bulldog Restaurant, Bald Knob
22.  Morrilton Drive Inn Restaurant, Morrilton
21.  DJ's Drive In, Bismarck
20.  Thirst 'N' Howl, Little Rock
19.  Chopping Block, Mena
18.  Boss BBQ, Benton
17.  Red Door, Little Rock 
16.  Feltner Brothers, Fayetteville
15.  Dairy Shack, Waldenburg
14.  Johnny B's, El Dorado
13.  Cotham's Mercantile, Scott/Cotham's in the City, Little Rock
12.  Hamburger Barn, Arkadelphia
11.  Viola Stampede, Viola
10.  Boardwalk Cafe, Jasper
9.  Sparky's Roadhouse and Ultralounge, Eureka Springs
8.  Myer's Cruizzers, Mena
7.  The Back Forty, Mountain Home
6.  Hamburger Station, Paragould
5.  Dairyette, Mount Ida
4.  Asher Dairy Bar, Little Rock
3.  Greenhouse Grille, Fayetteville
2.  Benson's Grill, Fort Smith
1.  David's Burgers, Little Rock

One of Grav's friends sent him the link, and he read it off to me as we were on the road, actually heading to the World Championship Steak Cook-Off in Magnolia -- because, of course, we actually GO places and do our research.  And as he read off the list, I noticed something.  Something sounded very, very odd.

They're all places I have reviewed.

Okay, that may seem a bit pompous, but get this -- with the exception of the Morrilton Drive-Inn Restaurant, Asher Dairy Bar and DJ's in Bismarck, they're all in my 50 Best Burgers of 2011 piece on this here blog.  What's more -- they're almost all burgers I wrote about in the Burger Joint of the Week pieces I did on Eat Arkansas between June and November 2011.  And Viola Stampede?  It's been closed for over a year.

If I were writing Eat Arkansas right now, I'd be doubly cheesed.

COME ON.  At least Thrillist did SOME research when it came to its choices of seven (heavily NWA centered) burgers in The Natural State.   And I think Thrillist is one of the worst at this.

I'm guessing it's time I put together a dang listicle of my own that encompasses all of the best burgers.  For now, if you'd like to see some of the awesome burgers I have eaten, head to this Facebook album.  Seriously.

And I'll see what I can come up with for your burger-eating pleasure.

Hot Burgers, Cold Ice Cream and Nostalgia at The Dairyette in Mt. Ida.

Since 1958, Mt. Ida's Dairyette has been the go-to dairy diner for locals and visitors alike, seeking ice cream and burgers. Find out more about this great roadside stop.

Minute Man: Smoke on the Burger.

This is one in a series on historical restaurants in the state of Arkansas. For a look at the Arkansas restaurant timeline, click here.

At the end of 56th Street, the cut-through to University Avenue, there was a Minute Man restaurant. It was on the south side of the intersection, across from Zimmerman’s gas station, and from time to time if we could afford it I could have a nice, mean and hot burger on a toasted bun. And if I was really good, I got ice cream.

There was also a Minute Man on Broadway, and it was there through my high school years. I recall going in as a little girl with my mom. They had just introduced their first kids meal called the Magic Meal (this is the late 70s) and my first one had come with a little green army man. The second one, my mom pulled out the burger and I took a bite and started to cry. There was a piece of gristle inside, or maybe some hard cheese or something – and I thought they’d put the little green army man on the burger and it had melted.

My memories of Minute Man come from childhood. Today they’re all gone, save for one lone holdout in El Dorado – too far for me to grab a #2 on my lunch break. You remember the #2, right? The smoke burger? Char-grilled and dolloped with a liquid smoke goo, never equaled by Sonic (funny, I don’t think they offer a smoke burger any more, either). I can still recall that exact slightly woody flavor.

UALR Center for Arkansas
History and Culture

Vernon Rodgers and Wes Hall.
(UALR Center for Arkansas
History and Culture)

The original location at 407 South Broadway in Little Rock was a low-slung building sitting out back of a parking lot. Raymond Merritt remembers it was originally the Lido Minute Man, but I was born significantly later and only remember it as Wes Hall’s Minute Man. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says Hall opened the place on May 26th of 1948 as a 24-hour coffee shop with three partners that he

Courtesy Raymond Merritt

eventually bought out before franchising the operation.

It grew, first to Hayes Street (named University Avenue by my time) and then onwards and outwards, eventually spreading to seven states with 57 different restaurants. And the ideas it seeded out spread through the fast food industry. That Magic Meal? It came along before McDonald’s Happy Meal. The #12, known as the “Big M,” was a great double-pattied burger that came along

The #12, or Big M. UALR Center for
Arkansas History and Culture)

before the Big Mac. And about half the burgers if you ordered them as they came (which really was the deal before Burger King started telling people to “have it your way” in the 80s), came with a smattering of “relish sauce” on the bun instead of mustard or mayo – relish sauce being very close to the Thousand Island-type sauce slathered on the Big Mac today. Oh, and if you wanted the lettuce and tomato on a burger like they’re all about served today, you had to order the #6 – the salad burger.

Minute Man was also one of the three restaurants to receive Raytheon’s experimental Radar Ranges. We’re talking a microwave oven – in 1948. While McDonald’s chain restaurants had their fried pies back then (IMHO superior to the baked pies offered today), Minute Man had the Radar Deep Dish Pie – a pot pie that if you were smart you ordered when you got your food so it had enough time to cool on the inside as to not burn your mouth. I only ever remember apple being offered, though the menu Merritt has on his website also shows peach, cherry and strawberry – “Served with Real Butter CREAM 5 cents Extra.”’

Courtesy Raymond Merritt

My mom and I moved to Little Rock in the mid-70s, and I grew up half a mile away from one of the University Avenue locations. It was absolutely as far as I dared to walk from the house, being on the other side of Geyer Springs Elementary by about three blocks. One of those most poignant childhood “fails” I recall was when the place started serving hard-scoop ice cream out the window. I was thrilled to get an ice cream cone with two scoops, side by side in what I believe was called a Sweetheart Cone. I remember going up to the window and waiting while my mom sat in the car. I paid for the treat (I think it was a dollar), turned around and promptly faceplanted on the concrete. Saved most of the cone – except for the very bottom. There was a rush to finish the ice cream before it melted out onto my lap, I remember.

Courtesy Raymond Merritt

By the time I was driving, the Minute Man still open in Little Rock was a block up from the original at 311 South Broadway. The building, if I recall correctly, was painted a pungent green. The interior was dark, and it was often quiet… unless you went at the lunch hour, when generations of traditionalists and Boomers squeezed in for a pick-up order or to quickly manage to consume a burger and fries. It closed for good in June of 2002 to make way for the new Federal Courthouse expansion. By that point, most of the other franchised restaurants had also met their demise – with the exception of that lone El Dorado holdout. Wes Hall didn’t live to see the end of that dream – he passed away a month beforehand.

The El Dorado Minute Man location. (Roadfood.com)

Will the Minute Man ever come back again? According to a posting on Roadfood.com’s forums, the El Dorado restaurant is still serving the same recipes up (I know it also serves cheese dip and burritos, which I don’t recall from the original) – and there was as of December 2012 someone considering opening a new Minute Man in Little Rock. I’m sure if the recipes are followed, that old smoke sauce is brought back and the prices are reasonable, the crowds will follow.

One more note. There's a man who's claimed to have raised me... that'd be the newscaster known as Craig O'Neill. One of these days I'll tell you why. For now, here's a link to the report he did for THV 11 (my old station) about Minute Man and its place in Arkansas history.

The Box: It's Back.

There has been these past two years a great wringing of hands amongst burger lovers in Central Arkansas, all over a single burger joint. And that wringing has been justified.

See, it’s all about The Band Box, or The Box as it is affectionately known. In June 2010 the proprietors announced the place would be closing its doors ahead of a move to 7th and Ringo. The building it used to be in had been purchased by USA Drug for the construction of a neighborhood pharmacy. I even wrote about the whole mess. They swore the new place would be open within a month.

Well, that didn’t happen.

First it was permit issues. Then something with the plumbing. Then this. And that. And frankly, a good number of people wrote off The Box. They assumed that if the place didn’t reopen on time, or even within a year, it was gone for good. There was no way it would be right.

I’m happy to say, those of little faith? They were wrong.

Today The Box reopened in its new location, finally, after all those months. Heck, let’s be honest, years -- it’s been about two years since the old joint closed its doors. I dropped in right before the official soft opening at 11 a.m. to see what was going on.

The new place is spiffy. It’s painted red along all walls, and there are plenty of new tables and chairs. Remember the old formica-topped bar in the old place? It’s been replaced with a smart new granite countertop and chrome-and-black barstools.

But there are bits of the old place there. On the wall you’ll see one of the old joint’s most memorable features -- decades of preserved bumper stickers for generations of radio stations and politicians. How’d they do that? Look closely. Those are the old refrigerator doors. You remember those, right? They were on the fridge that was between the big dining section and the kitchen. Yes, you can still read “Wilbur... Kiss Your Fanne” and other sorts of things on those doors. And if you don’t know who Wilbur was or why he needed to kiss Fanne... well, you musta not grown up in Little Rock, at least not back in the day. You probably also don’t know what the alternate name is for I-630.

The griddle is there... the same griddle as you remember.  And they even kept the ketchup bottles from the old place.  Don't worry, they've been washed.  When I first got there I saw the wait staff filling the bottles with a funnel.

Anyway, a lot has been preserved, but a lot is new, and it’s just shiny and pretty. And one major thing has changed. Instead of table service, you now order at the counter and go find a seat. They’ll bring you your burger, but you gotta go order it yourself and get you a drink. See?

I was one of the first to place my order today, and I sat at the counter and watched Miss Mae work her way through several orders while I was there. She’s always double-checking. Arthur is still on the griddle, too.

I did notice something I’d never witnessed before... I made it there early enough to see the seasoning of the grill. At least part of it. I was surprised to see Arthur turn out a pile of jalapenos and bring them to a glorious sauteed perfection. Then Terry went and got a bowl of grease out of the fryer and poured that on there. I don’t think that’s everything to do with the flavor, but I gotta wonder.

Which brings me to the burger. You can get yours with cheese -- American, Swiss, Cheddar or Hot Pepper Jack -- and with grilled onions or bacon or whatever you like. But a traditional Box burger comes with mayo and mustard, lettuce and tomato, pickle and onion on a toasted seedless bun. Mine was a little off-center, thanks to the instant glue the Cheddar cheese made when it came into contact with that top bread. But it was every bit as good as I remembered it. The patty, charred and packed with flavor, was a trip down into my deepest grease-lined burger memories.

And then there were the fries. I have to say, they were a little different. Yes, there’s still that great spice to them, but the ones I got were crispy and not the least bit greasy, which was a surprise. My dining mate and I came to an agreement that they were better, and likely as not they were that crisp since they were the first ones out of the fryer.

By the time I had finished, there were three dozen people waiting to order and a couple dozen already seated, some dining and some waiting. Someone had placed a humongous order of more than a dozen burgers, and that was slowing things down. Still, everyone seemed to be in a good mood and everyone was patiently waiting for their chance to experience a flavor that’s been missing from the Little Rock burger scene for so long.

The Box is now at 7th and Ringo. For now it’s only open for lunch Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Click on this picture here and you’ll see all the things that are on the menu. They didn’t have onion rings for opening day, but those are coming. If the burger is any indication, it’ll be worth the wait.

Burger Highway: Little Rock's Cantrell Road.

A lot of towns across Arkansas have good restaurants that make great burgers. Little Rock has more than its share. But there’s a particular bit of highway that runs through town that seems to draw good burgers in.

That’d be Highway 10, known as Cantrell Road within the city limits. Within two blocks on either side of the road, you’ll find some of the best examples of all-beef nirvana on a bun. Here’s a quick rundown, west to east.

Start out at Thirst N’ Howl. This little Gilligan’s Island themed restaurant utilizes names from the popular TV show to denote its different burgers. Served with American cheese, the Skipper’s Burger is a classic All-American burger (you can also have it with Swiss or pepper jack). It’s a nice Cavender’s-and-black-pepper flavored half pound burger patty cooked medium well, sitting on a soft untoasted and unseeded bun, griddle-cooked with cheese melted into the patty. It comes with ridgy hamburger dill slices, red onion, a couple of chunks of tomato and green leaf lettuce with a gob of mayo under the top bun and a good quality stoneground type mustard on the bottom.

Head further east to the Pleasant Ridge Town Center and you’ll encounter the only national chain operation on this list... but it would be strange to talk burgers and not mention Cheeburger Cheeburger. The Little Rock outlet is decorated in neon and 50s style; trivia cards on the table hold your interest while you wait for your custom made burger. You choose and pay for the size, then you choose what comes on the burger. There’s everything from onion rings to black olives, artichoke hearts to pepperoni that can go on your burger.

Cross I-430 and pass the reservoir and you’ll find The Purple Cow on the left. This is a fabulous spot to get a good ice cream soda or banana split.

The Rodeo Burger is a big star here. It’s a traditional quarter pound burger topped with onion rings, bacon, Cheddar cheese and honey mustard barbecue sauce.

Down a quarter mile on the left, you’ll find Burger Mama’s. The restaurant recently moved from its location at Shackleford and Kanis... I suspect to take advantage of being on Burger Row. The double is a lot better deal than the single -- and you can always split it and share. They are messy burgers. There’s no guts and glory to these burgers — at nearly a third a pound each, these smashburgers are hefty and tall.

Within spitting distance is Crazee’s Cool Cafe. This bar (21 and older only, smoking allowed) serves up any burger, fries and a beverage for $7.50 for lunch. And there are several to choose from, including a Mexican burger, an Italian, a Cheeseburger and a Hamburger and a Bacon Cheeseburger and a BBQ Burger. The Mushroom Swiss Burger is a hot mess of sliced button mushrooms and Swiss cheese melted into a big flat patty on top of lettuce and tomato. It all comes out in a paper-lined basket with fries and you’re going to need a whole heck of a lot of napkins.

Then there’s Arkansas Burger Company, past Mississippi a few blocks on the left. Look for the green roof. The big two-fisted burger comes on a buttered sesame seeded bun — that end up three inches apart thanks to two gigantically thick half pound patties coated in cheese, hamburger dill pickles and white onion on the bottom, shredded iceberg lettuce and a big thick slice of tomato on the top. Those loose-packed hand formed patties have a nice light burger crust, seasoned with a little salt, pepper and Greek seasoning, loose packed and juicy. Get some cheese dip while you are there.

On the other side of University, take a left and go a block in to R Street. Look for the white and red awning of Burge’s in the Heights. The classic burgers are charbroiled and served toasty, old-fashioned style in that white wax paper with the toothpick, with either some of those crispy fries or a tray of cornmeal-crusted onion rings and a chocolate malt or a pineapple shake. If you miss this location, check out the original in Lewisville.

A block and a half north of that is Sushi Cafe, which sells sushi. It also sells mean, lean burgers like the impressive Titanic Burger. Made from Black Angus beef, the three-patty burger doesn’t squish much, making it that much harder to put in your mouth. But what a flavor! The tempura-battered sweet potato fries are excellent.

Just down Kavanaugh and still within two blocks of Cantrell Road is Cheers in the Heights. They do great food all the way around, and they do a great burger called the Old Fashioned. Half a pound of griddle fried lean ground beef on a toasted Kaiser roll, meat salt and pepper seasoned with a little of what tasted like Tony Chachere's in the background, red onion slivers, tomato, mustard, lettuce and hamburger dills. This Old Fashioned is named after the traditional dairy-bar favorite where the mustard usually goes directly on the meat.

Head down Cantrell Hill, and at the foot you’ll find the Rebsamen Triangle. This conjunction of Old Cantrell Road and Rebsamen Park Road is a mecca of good restaurants, several with their own burgers. The grand-daddy of all these burgers is the Town Pump Burger at the Town Pump, a great local watering hole. Swiss and Cheddar cheese, “special mayo” and black olives give this burger a great salty-tangy flavor that’s unmatched just about anywhere.

A block away you’ll find Maddie’s Place, a New Orleans inspired joint that serves up a Hamburger Po’Boy with your choice of side (get a half salad, it’s good for you). Doled up on buttered French bread, this chargrilled patty covered with cheese is paired with remoulade for a Crescent City flavor.

Buffalo Grill is next door, and its traditional burger comes with chips and a pickle spear, toasted and seeded bun and plenty of vegetation. The default condiment is mustard, which goes along well with the flavor of the patty, a traditional salt-and-pepper hand-patted medium-packed patty with a light char and decent thickness. The mustard (and/or whatever other condiment you want) goes on the top bun, followed downwards by pickle, shredded iceberg lettuce, tomato, white onion and nothing between the patty and the bottom bun, prime for absorbing any residual griddle juice. It’s tall, requires both hands and smushery to get it consumed.

And there’s Red Door, with its Mamma’s Manna bun. The Really Good Burger is a classic double smashburger smacked with a liberal amount of cheese (Cheddar, Provolone or American) and served with a pile of regular and sweet potato fries. This is where good burger meets gourmet.

Head further east on down to Downtown and turn off on Ringo. Over on Markham you’ll find Doe’s Eat Place and its cheeseburger, a half pound of medium-well cooked beef on a white seedless untoasted bun, pasted to that top bun with a slice of American (not pasteurized-processed) cheese. The bun is chilly, the meat is hot and the big pile of iceberg lettuce on the bottom is cool and crispy and coated with the mayonnaise that also covers the bottom bun. A hearty slice of tomato and some somewhat thick ridgy dills accompany -- and there’s nary an onion slice to be found.

And then at the end of Cantrell, when it gets up to Markham right at the River Market, you turn right and go down two blocks to the Capitol Hotel, where just about the best burger I have ever eaten lives. Capitol Bar and Grill’s burger is sirloin steak ground fresh served with locally raised produce, housemade pickles and, if you’re smart enough to ask for it, pimento cheese on top. Oh man.

Fifteen burgers, eleven miles... that’s what makes Cantrell Road/Highway 10 Little Rock’s burger corridor.

Burger Joint of the Week: Ed Walker's Drive-In.

There are a lot of places around the state that proclaim the largest this-or-that. When it comes to single-patty burgers, you won’t find one larger than the Giant Hamburger at Ed Walker’s Drive-In in Fort Smith.

The 50 Best Arkansas Burgers I Tried in 2011.

I eat a LOT of burgers.  I write about them, too.  I feature one each week in my Burger Joint of the Week piece for Eat Arkansas, the Arkansas Times blog for food lovers.  I write about burgers inside and outside of Arkansas for Serious Eats:  A Hamburger Today.  And in general, I just like burgers.  They are the quintessential American sandwich.